


Adventures In Baby Raising

by Deathraptor22



Series: It's Complicated [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adoption, Dealing With The Aftermath Of A Traumatic Event, Domestic problems, F/M, Family, Gen, Humor, Multi, Other, Raising A New Baby, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26162632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathraptor22/pseuds/Deathraptor22
Summary: Squeal to ' It's Complicated' . The Winchester clan adjust to life with a new baby. A new baby with angelic powers she can't control.
Relationships: Sam Whichester/Hannah, Sam Winchester & Hannah & Dean Winchester & Castiel & Cyrus Styne & OC
Series: It's Complicated [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1880866





	Adventures In Baby Raising

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. If you recognize it, assume I don’t own it.  
> AN: Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well.  
> This is actually a sequel to another story, “It’s Complicated” so if you hadn’t read that, it could get confusing. Basic points: Dean and Castiel were accidently de-aged into toddlers with no memories of their past lives, Sam and Hannah are raising them, Sam and Hannah are also married now and have a newborn baby, Charlie adopted Magda Peterson, Reason, Maudie, Serena Joy, Elsbeth, Tova, Lizzie, Tabbris, Ruth and Abigail are all OCs.

Sam jumped, trying to catch the blue pacifier hovering in the air avoiding the wailing infant on the floor, fat tears falling down her face, kicking. Sam nearly fell over as he tried to get the wayward comfort object, having to grab the table to steady himself. “Daddy’s trying, sweetie. It would help if you would stop moving the binky, just saying.”  
Just then Hannah came running in from where she had been getting Dean and Castiel set up with lunch. “What’s going on in here? I could hear her all the way from the kitchen.”  
“Grace wants her binky, and took it upon herself to get, but she keeps missing the mark and she’s freaking out.” Sam explained.  
It had been about a month or so since they had Grace and it was a bit of an adjustment. You know those diaper commercials that say by their second child every parent is an expert? Apparently, that only applied to parents who first children had actually been babies. And parents who didn’t have baby with powers they didn’t know how to control. Not to mention, they, or at least Sam, was exhausted, they were both on edge at times, at others times feeling inadequate, laundry piled up, toys strewn everywhere their attention divided in between the baby, who of course needed content care, and the boys. And that was with Charlie and Magda staying for a little the whole first month to helped with things while Hannah recovered and they all adjusted to life with a new baby.  
Just then, Charlie, who had been trying to tackle the growing laundry pile, summoned by the cries. As the pacifier went her way she reached, grabbing it. Sam picked up Grace and Charlie ran over to her and stuck the pacifier into the baby Nephilim’s mouth, and Grace began to suck, now happy and content.  
“This really isn’t necessary.” Hannah was telling the pair the day before they headed out, as Charlie and Magda ran through the stacks, dusting.  
“Again, Hannah that’s why we’re here.” Charlie told her, poking her head out, “You have enough on your plate without worrying about this for a few weeks.”  
“Well, at least let me pitch in.” Hannah gave in. She was almost fully healed from her surgery at this point, and had almost a full range of movement back. She picked up the broom, and began to sweep.  
“Hannah, no.” Charlie insisted, “We got this.”  
“So do I.” Hannah insisted right back, sweeping.  
The day Charlie and Magda were set to leave, they were both clung to by two distraunt little boys.  
“Aunt Charlie, please don’t go!” Dean begged, wrapping himself around her legs.  
“Yeah, don’t go!” Cas added, burying his face in Magda’s head.  
“We’ll see you again soon.” Charlie promised them, giving Dean an awkward hug, “And hey, I’ll Facetime you guys tonight, okay?”  
Dean sniffed. “Okay.”  
“You better call me, too.” Sam told her, wrapping her in his arms, “Take care out there you, too.”  
“You take care here, too.” Charlie told him, “And good luck.”  
A few hours later, Grace got hungry, her cries filling the house. This was not an uncommon occurrence and everyone knew what to do.  
“Don’t worry, little one, it’s coming.” Hannah assured her, screwing on the bottle lid, “You’re really working yourself up over nothing.” She picked her up from the high chair and held her, guiding her to the bottle. The infant took it and began to suck contently. “Is that better?” Hannah asked, “That’s better now, isn’t it?”  
“She’s eating again?!” Dean balked, as much a four-year-old could, from the other room, “How much can she eat?!”  
“Babies grow a lot faster, so they eat a lot more.” Cyrus, who was still living with them, told him, from where he was sitting on the floor with the boys. Plus, this is a special baby, so that might something to do with it.  
“Something’s wrong with her.” Dean declared, “I think we need a new baby.”  
“Dean!” Cyrus exclaimed, genuinely shocked. Dean had seemed to adore his new sister before. They both did.  
“She’s loud and smelly and leaky and she hogs Mommy and Daddy!” Dean elaborated on his complaint.  
Suddenly it all clicked for Cyrus. The twins were used to getting all the attention and now the baby was taking a lot of it, and they were getting jealous. At least Dean was. Of course, where Dean went, Cas usually followed.  
That night, as Sam and Hannah lay in bed, intertwined in each other, the quiet of the night was broken by an infant’s wail. Both parents sat up and Sam started to get out of the bed. “No, no, I’ll get her.” Hannah assured him, “You just get back to sleep.”  
“Hannah, you got her the last two times.” Sam pointed up, feeling a little guilty.  
“Sam, I don’t actually require sleep to function.” Hannah reasoned, “You on the other hand do.” Then she turned back to Grace. “What’s the matter, little one? “She then sniffed her, “Not that. Hungry? Why do I keep acting like you can talk?”  
Calming down the baby cooed, reaching out her pudgy arms and grabbing one of Hannah’s curls.  
“Oh, I see,” Hannah mused, “You were missing me, huh?”  
As if in conformation, Grace cooed again and in spite of herself Hannah chuckled and kissed the little Nephilim on the forehead. “You know, if you slept for four more hours you would have gotten to see me, and everyone else just the same.” Then she walked out with the infant to get her a bottle anyway.  
The next day, Cyrus walked into Sam and Hannah’s room, and found Sam laid out on the bed, Grace in the crib beside him, down for her mid-morning nap. Like most babies, she enjoyed a good nap. “Ah, Sam…. what are you doing?” It was still Sam and Hannah, not Mom and Dad. It wasn’t that he felt any sort of affection or loyalty for his birth family, not after all they had done, it just felt…awkward. And besides, it’s not like he was going to be a permanent fixture around here. It was just until they could find his mother’s family.  
“Sleeping when the baby sleeps.” Sam told him, not moving. Hannah insisted on taking most of the night work, since she didn’t actually need sleep anyway, but what she didn’t understand was, once he was up, he was up until that baby was back down.  
“I can come back…” Cyrus offered awkwardly, taking a few steps back.  
“No, no, if you need to talk about something, we can talk.” Sam assured him sitting on the bed.  
Cyrus sat down the bed and began nervously. “I think the twins…might be a little jealous of Grace.” He flinched, halfway expecting a reprimand.  
Instead, Sam simply asked. “Well, have they said anything?” They had love Grace since them moment they told them Hannah was pregnant. And Dean hadn’t been jealous the first time around. At least he didn’t think he was. Then again, it’s not like there was anyone around to tell him.  
“When Hannah was feeding her the other day, Dean told me we needed a new baby because this one was loud and leaky and smelly and hogging your and Hannah’s time.” Cyrus summarized.  
“What about Cas? Did he say anything?” Sam asked, feeling the situation out.  
“No.” Cyrus admitted, “I don’t know about him.”  
“Thanks for letting me know.” Sam responded, “We’ll figure something out.”  
“He really thinks she takes all our time?” Hannah asked, sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee. Sam asked if they could talk for a minute and had a new pot on. She knew that usually meant trouble.  
“Well, I haven’t asked Dean yet, but Cy doesn’t really have a reason to lie about it.” Sam responded, “So, any ideas?”  
Hannah shook her head. “Jealously wasn’t ever really an issue for us. “After a beat she realized, “But I think I know who to ask.”  
Fortunately, the three people she was thinking of decided to stop by that afternoon.  
“Heck yeah, I was jealous of the twins.” Serena Joy said, sitting the basket of various types of sweet potato muffins she brought down on the counter before turning around, “At least through the pregnancy. The day the Mom went into labor I literally started crying wouldn’t stop until my dad gave me a milkshake, and even then, I moped the whole sixteen hours. I was not going gently into middle child status.”  
“But…you adore your little sisters.” Hannah responded, not unbelieving, just…surprised.  
“Yeah, I do now.” Serena Joy replied, “But before they got here; not so much.”  
“I honestly don’t remember Esther ever not being there.” Reason admitted, standing in the doorway with Hannah, “We’re only two years apart.”  
“Vanessa didn’t really take much interest in Scarlett until she got old enough to move around more.” Elsbeth shrugged.  
“Well how—how did you deal with it?” Hannah asked, “How did your parents deal with it?”  
“Well, my parents convinced me to help with them.” Serena Joy answered, “You know, feeding, changing, usually not those, keeping them occupied, and then I realized, ‘Holy crap, these are better than dolls.”  
“Also, hollowing out some space for one on one time is a good strategy, too.” Elsbeth added, “You play with the boys, go out somewhere while Sam handles the baby, Sam does something with them while you watch the baby. A little undivided attention.”  
“Hold on a second.” Hannah said, grabbing a napkin and after searching her blazer, found a pin and began taking notes.  
“So, what do you think?” Hannah asked, looking across the table at Sam as he looked over her notes.  
“Are sure it’s a good idea to let the four-year-olds take care of the baby?” Sam asked.  
“We’ve be supervising.” Hannah reasoned, before catching on, “It wouldn’t be like the first time around Sam. They’re not being parents before they even go to Kindergarten, we’re not throwing all the responsibility on them, we’re just—giving them an opportunity to bound a little. It might even give them a little confidence. “  
“Okay.” Sam agreed, “It’s worth a shot. “  
An opportunity presented itself that afternoon. Everyone had just woken up from their naps and Grace was very loudly demanding a post-nap meal. Hannah pulled a bottle from the fridge when she eyed the boys standing in the doorway. “Oh, Dean, Castiel?”  
The boys stepped into the kitchen at the sound of their names.  
“Would you like to help feed Grace?” Hannah offered.  
“We can do that?” Dean asked, seemingly intrigued.  
“Yes.” Hannah answered, sitting down and gesturing for Dean to get on her lap.  
Dean did and Hannah carefully handed him Grace, saying, “You just, keep her up like this, it’s very important you watch the head….”  
Dean did, staring down into his sister’s two-toned eyes. And his sister stared back, content with being fed and curious about her new feeder.  
“Can I get a turn?” Cas requested, suddenly excited.  
“I’s not ready, yet.” Dean protested.  
Hannah began to wonder if they had thought it through. “How ‘bout you do the next feeding? “  
“Okay.” Cas agreed reluctantly.  
Later that day, Hannah sat on the bed, all her tops off, cringing a little as she worked the breast bump.  
Hannah could more or less produce enough milk, though sometimes Grace ate so much they have to supplement with formula at least part of the time, but the child could not latch. They couldn’t figure out why, Dr. Robert, Tilly and a pediatrician from town had looked at them both, and while nothing seemed to be wrong, they couldn’t figure out the reason for the inability. Its disturbed Hannah more than she thought it would. But she pumped. Daily. It was uncomfortable, sometimes painful and slow, but every day without failed she milked herself.  
Done with the painful session, she removed the cups from her breast and put her bra back on, and was about to put her shirt back on when she caught sight of herself in the mirror and couldn’t help but stare. She had her pre-pregnancy figure back, courtesy of the Stynes, thought now she had nasty c-section scar, a mark evoking both embarrassment, pride and lingering since of anger and fear at the same time, and her breast barely fit in her bra anymore. In fact, her cup almost literally runneth over.  
Carrying a stack of books, Sam walked past their room and stopped, seeing her. “Hannah? Are you okay?”  
“I think I might need to get a new bra.” Hannah declared.  
“Excuse me?” Sam responded, sitting the books down on floor and walking into the room.  
“My bra.” Hannah elaborated, “It’s not big enough. I mean—look at this.”  
“I am.” Sam told her. Walking closer to her, Sam began, “Hannah, you’re still beautiful—”  
“I’m not feeling insecure, Sam.” Hannah cut him off, “I know that happens with a lot of new mothers, but I’m just being practical. I mean, my cup’s about to pop. That’s not supposed to happen, is it?”  
“Ah, cups aren’t really my area of expertise.” Sam began, “Hannah, are you sure you’re not experiencing anything—negative right now?”  
Hannah shook her head, saying, “Sam, you don’t have to worry about me. I’m fine.”  
“It’s just, I know you’ve been through a lot lately and I know it’s an understatement , and I know that lot of women have post-partum issues, and women who have to undergo a c-section have a higher risk of birth related post dramatic stress disorder…” Sam rambled on.  
“Which I am not having.” Hannah assured him, putting her hands on his shoulders, “I just wish my clothes would change along with my body.” Changing the subject, she continued, “By the way, I, uh, I think I have an opportunity for you to do a one on one day with the boys. Serena Joy called today, asked if I was free to go dress shopping with her and the other bridesmaids this weekend they were hopping to get that part out in one day, Reason called too and was wondering if I would be free to meet to plan the bridal shower afterwards, because that is apparently a thing, and I already got the OK to bring the baby, so I was think you could take the boys somewhere like we talked about?”  
“Yeah,” Sam agreed, seeing her logic, “Yeah, that kind of just—falls into our laps.”  
That weekend, two very excited littles boys, one green eyed with tawny hair, one blued eye with dark hair, ran up to the play set, screaming for joy and Sam and Cyrus, who the boys pleaded to come, walked behind him. The tykes ran up to the swing set, leaping up. “Push me!” Dean called out, waving his little legs in the air.  
“Push me, too, me!” Castiel added, wiggling on the seat.  
“Alright, I take one, you take the other?” Sam suggested.  
“Sure.” Cyrus agreed, going to Cas as Sam went over to Dean.  
Sometime after the boys got tired of the swing, the group wound up in the platform to the slide, fighting with imagery swords.  
“Egh!” Sam shouted for effect, blocking the blow only to bump his head. Again. Both he and Cyrus were way over the height restriction, Cyrus barely fit and Sam had to duck to fit in the platform, giving the kids something of an advantage.  
“Hold!” Dean called out, and everything stopped. “You okay, Daddy?”  
“Yeah, yeah, just a little tap.” Sam assured him, though he rubbed his head.  
Satisfied, they all went back to playing. Cas jabbed Cyrus, tripping and nearly falling through the slide before Sam caught him. “Careful, careful now.”  
After the boys won out against their enemies, they found a new piece of park equipment they had never seen before: The merry-go-round.  
“What’s that?” Cas asked, pointing at it.  
“It’s a merry go round.” Sam explained, “You get on it and its spins.”  
Dean immediately lept on, trying to make it go, put couldn’t figure out how.  
“I think it might be broken.” Cas declared with a little head tilt.  
Sam hesitated. While most of the play aera was in relatively good shape, this particular device appeared older, had patches of rust all over it, creaked, and made Sam think death trap.  
Then after a few minutes of consideration, Cas let go of Sam’s hand and got on, trying to help his brother activate the device.  
Giving the merry go round a second once-over, Sam decided it wasn’t in that bad shape, he had used worst in his day, so he walked up saying, “You have to start it like this.” The he pushed it until it got a good start, “Hold on.” One he was certain they were each holding a bar, Sam let go, standing back and watching as the kids squealed.  
Meanwhile, Hannah sitting with Grace wrapped in the baby sling, rocking Grace back and forth and humming as the infant’s eyes closed, succumbing to her mid-morning nap, while a gaggle of women—Reason, Serena Joy’s three sisters, Edith, and Elsbeth, gathered around, wanting a closer look, but also trying to keep a respectful distance.  
“She’s so sweet.” Elsbeth praised.  
“Such a little angel.” Priscilla Jean declared innocently, causing Reason and Elsbeth to almost jump and Hannah to squirm uncomfortably.  
“I just can’t get over how big she is for just a month old.” Eliza Jane mused good naturally, “Neither of my girls were that big at that age.”  
“Well, her father’s a big guy, so, maybe she got it from him.” Elsbeth suggested, trying to deflect suspicion.  
They let Elsbeth in on all the secrets after Grace was born, since it was out in the open to most of their circle at that point. She hadn’t been as nonchalant as Rawls had, but it still didn’t seem to affect anyone’s relationship that much.  
“And besides,” Reason said, putting an around Hannah, “Kids grow at different rates. I remember Maudie was such a tiny thing. She would eat, and eat, but she was still just—small for her age. People would think I wasn’t feeding her. Then she started putting weight on the time she turned one.”  
Just then there was the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them. Remembering why there were all there, they turned around. Serena Joy was standing in front of them in a floor length, white strapless gown embossed with little white triangles. She looked stunning.  
“I think this is the one.” Serena Joy declared.  
Meanwhile, the men had hit their second destination for the day, the library, where Dean and Castiel had decided the Cyrus needed to be introduced to all the dinosaurs in the dinosaur cubby  
“This is the t-rex.” Dean explained, setting a green and yellow t-rex in a row with all the other dinosaurs he had pulled out, “It has a bigger name, but I don’t know how to say it, yet. It was angry because its arms were too little to reach it wee-wee.”  
Sam shot up from his seat. “Dean!”  
Dean looked down.  
“Sorry, bud.” Sam began, crouching down, “Daddy didn’t mean to be harsh. He just wasn’t really…expecting that. We—we can’t say things like that in public because it makes other people uncomfortable. Where did you even heard that?”  
“The radio.” Dean answered.  
Suddenly Sam remembered Rawls dropping some things off at the bunker since he knew where it was now and playing Jeff Foxworthy Radio on his phone. He also remembered a bit about facts of life. “Oh.”  
Just then there a familiar little shout of “DeanCas!”  
Within a few seconds Maudie ran smack into both boys, trying to hug them both at the same time. “I missed you, I missed you, I missed you so, so much—”  
“Whoa, whoa, Maudie,” Sam began.  
That brought the tot’s attention on him. “Mr. Sam!” She declared, throwing herself at her favorite father figure, “I missed you, too! I missed you so, so, so, much!”  
“Maudie!” Sam urged, “Clam down. You saw us all a few days ago.” Even though Reason was still leaving her with others for the time being, their group was so tight-knit that she and/or one of the others was always coming over to help, and when Reason stopped by to check in, Maudie was always with her. Though Sam supposed that, when you’re four going from seeing someone almost every day, to at most once a week, it was a big difference. Then something else occurred to him. “Ah, who are you supposed to be with?”  
Just then Reason’s friend Vinny came running around the corner, calling out, “Maudie, Maudie, where—” He paused when he saw her. “There you are. Don’t scare me like that.”  
Maudie looked down, knowing she had done wrong. “Sorry, Mr. Vinney.”  
Crouching down, Vinney said, “Look, I’m not mad. But you can’t run off like that. Do it again and we’ll have to leave, understand?”  
“I understand.” Maudie replied, “Sorry.” Then her face brightened, “Can I still play with Dean and Cas?”  
“Of course, you can.” Vinny answered, undoing the harness then sitting next to Sam as the kids sped off.  
They let the kids played with each other for over until everyone was declaring they were hungry and split up.  
Sam looked back at the table where the boys were waiting. He had taken them to MacDonald’s for lunch, and was currently waiting on their order. Turns out it was a hopping place on Saturday.  
“Twenty-five.” A uniformed teen called out, placing two bags and two Happy Meal boxes.  
Sam took the tray and brought it back to the table, taking the two burger meals out of their boxes and setting it out for the boys along with their fries. “Alright, which had the chocolate milk and which one had the—not chocolate milk?”  
“I had the chocolate milk!” Dean called out.  
“Okay,” Sam handed it to him, “And buddy? Inside voice.”  
“Oh.” Dean responded, looking down.  
“It happens to all of us sometimes, bud.” Sam encouraged him, “Even Daddy has issues with his indoor voice.” After getting the boys’ food in order, Sam sat down to his salad that he doubted was in actuality much healthier than what the boys had, looking over to Cyrus meal of one box of five-piece chicken nuggets. “You sure you got enough there, Cy?”  
“Yeah, it’s fine.” Cyrus insisted, “Are you sure…”  
“Cyrus, I’m not taking your money.” Sam said quickly, perhaps a bit snappishly. The boy had offered to pay for his own meal separately and when Sam wouldn’t hear of it, went for the cheapest thing he saw on the menu. Softening his tone, a bit he tried again, “Look, while you’re here with us, we’ll feed you. You don’t need to worry about that.”  
“It’s okay.” Cyrus insisted, “Really.”  
Meanwhile, at a MacDonald’s a town over, a group of seven women were squeezed into a both, an array of drinks between so they weren’t just taking up a booth, Reason with a notepad in front of her, saying, “Okay, I’ve never done this before, I have no clue what doing, neither does Hannah, so , everyone please speak up, there are no bad ideas.”  
“Well, I guess we should start with the guest list.” Eliza Jane spoke up, “Are we doing the Jack and Jill style, has anyone asked Rawls?”  
“What the heck is a ‘Jack and Jill’ Style shower?” Elsbeth asked.  
“It’s co-ed guess from both sides celebrating the bride and groom together.” Norma Jean spoke up, “That’s what Lizzie Jane and Nick had.”  
“You guys okay if I text him, see what he thinks?” Elsbeth volunteered.  
“Or course.” Hannah agreed. Grace was awake now, cradled in her mother’s arm, sucking down a bottle.  
While no one noticed it at first, as a pair of nicely dressed women sat down at a table a few feet away. Not noticing the development, Reason took her phone out. “So, I’ll text Serena Joy about the Jack and Jill thing, in the meantime, who is coming to the wedding anyway? So, I know who we’re all inviting.”  
“Well, obviously, there’s us.” Corrine spoke up, gesturing around with her head, “From outside there’s both sets of grandparents, so that’s Susan and Nell at least, I’ll get you the information, Stan’s cusion Rose, you met her at the engagement party, Sarah and Amber are invited to the wedding, and do what you like, but I think it would be best for everyone’s sanity if their invitations were lost in the mail, if you know what I mean.”  
“While I’m not against either of them not showing up,” Hannah began, remembering her and Sam’s rather unpleasant experience with Sarah at the engagement party, “Is this normal?”  
That was when Hannah noticed one of the women at the next table, smooth short brown hair in a wedge cut, in a straight yellow dress suit, kept looking over at her as she fed Grace.  
“It’s not but---I can make something up to keep the peace, I’ve gotten good at it over the years.” Corrine assured her.  
“I have to agree with Corrine on this one.” Reason said, remembering her own encounter with Amber.  
During this time the woman in the yellow dress glanced over at Hannah again, whispered something to her friend, who seemed rather uncomfortable, then glanced at Hannah again.  
“Now, on Rawls side, obviously there’s Elsbeth and Edith here.” Corrine continued, “And his sister, Persephone. What about his mother? Are they inviting her?”  
Both Edith and Elsbeth got looks on their face like the next conversation was going to be disagreeable.  
“He called Aunt Gloria to tell her, but she hasn’t been put on the official invite list.” Edith explained, “She has a rather—complicated relationship with her children. As for the bridal shower…. Els, do you want to tell her what happened at your shower?”  
However, Hannah kept noticing the woman in the yellow dress staring at her. “I’m sorry, is there something you want to tell us?” She spoke finally.  
“Formula for a baby that young. Interesting.” The woman commented, not giving anymore context, but it was obvious what she meant.  
Hannah got a sinking feeling inside her. “It’s breast milk….” Even though the rational part of her knew that the most important thing was that Grace got fed, but every time she saw a nursing mother, happened upon some article about breastfeeding, caught the glare of a “breastfeeding crazy” as Elsbeth had dubbed them, or sometimes even just glance at the boxes of formula they had put back ‘just in case’ she felt like an inadequate mother and almost compulsively began to explain.  
Reason took Hannah by the hand. “Don’t.” She whispered.  
Leaning in Elsbeth added, “You don’t have to justify anything to her.”  
“She’s right.” Corrine agreed, speaking up just loud enough for the women to hear, “You know, my friend Alice worked in pediatrics for a while and she absolutely loathed these idiots who vapidly chimed ‘breast is best’ with no regard for the factors that sometimes make that impossible, like it was better for the baby to die of starvation.”  
The woman in the yellow dress turned beet red, while the woman next to her just burst out laughing. “Thank you, ma’am.” The laughing one said, “Just thank you—and I apologize on behalf of my friend. She’s never been good at minding her own business.”  
“Thank you.” Hannah told the others grateful to have such a loyal group.  
Another night, another secession in sleep deprivation.  
Hannah raised up. “I’ll get her.”  
“No, Hannah, I’ll do it.” Sam said, sitting up and getting out of the bed.  
“Sam, you have your first day back doing yard work Monday, and a shift at the kennel.” Hannah pointed out, “And besides, I—”  
“I know.” Sam cut her off, “You don’t sleep. I know.”  
Sam’s brusqueness took her aback. “Sam, have I upset you somehow?”  
“No,” Sam responded quickly, “Sorry, I’m just tired. Just let me do my share of the work, please.”  
“Alright.” Hannah agreed reluctantly, pulling back into the bed.  
Sam went to pick Grace up looking her over. He could smell what was wrong. “Smells like someone needs a diaper change.”  
Grabbing the essentials, Sam sat Grace down on the changing table, undoing her onsite. “I hope you’re not saving all the big ones for me, Gracie.” He quipped as he sat to work.  
Cooing, Grace reached out, grabbing his hand as it passed, and wrapping her little hand around the base of his thumb.  
“That’s, ah, quite a grip you got there.” Sam told her. He never understood why people were so impressed by a baby’s grip. Maybe it was because something so small shouldn’t be that strong.  
Suddenly, Grace tightened her grip. A lot and suddenly Sam felt a sharp crushing pain and could hear bones snapping.  
“Grace,” Sam began, pulling away, “Grace, Grace, Grace, let go!’  
Realizing something was wrong but not understanding what it was, Grace let go beginning to wail at the top of her lungs.  
Hearing her husband’s shouts, Hannah had already lept from the bed, running to her husband’s aid. “What happened? Are you hurt?”  
“It’s my hand.” Sam told her, holding his thumb, “Apparently little Hercules here, doesn’t know her own strength yet.”  
Hannah took Sam’s hand beginning to heal it.  
“Are you sure your up to that?” Sam questioned, concerned. She had most of her power back, but she was still recovering.  
“Sam you can’t go to work with your hand like this.” Hannah responded, hold her hand over his until it was healed.  
“Thanks.” Sam said, reaching out to take the baby, who was still crying.  
“Let me.” Hannah requested, reaching out and picking Grace up. “I know, I know, you didn’t mean to. Mommy fixed Daddy hand, it’s alright. But you really need to be more careful.”  
“Yeah, I don’t think she’s reached the level of language skills yet.” Sam told her.  
It took a good half hour of soothing, but eventually, they got Grace back down and asleep.  
While Grace may wake them up every two hours crying at night, when she woke up in the morning, she always in a good mood.  
Monday morning, Sam leaned over the crib, Grace had her eyes close. Sensing someone above her, she opened her eyes, smiling. “Good morning, Gracie,” Sam chimed, smiling back at her as she moved around, breaking into an ever bigger, toothless smile, sticking her tongue out a little, “Good morning, sunshine. Are we waking up?”  
Grace just looked at him, smiling.  
“Pretty.” Sam cooed at her.  
Grace broke into an even bigger smile, showing off her toothless gums wiggling around as if she knew Sam was complimenting her.  
“Are we happy this morning, again?” Sam asked playfully, “Why does that not surprise me?”  
“Are you sure you’re going to be okay here on your own?” Sam asked, standing at the door. While Hannah didn’t start back on the job for another week, Sam had been doing part time at the kennel, and this was the first day back at his side business since the baby was born. They had saved enough to make sure they would be covered for a bit.  
“I have everything under control.” Hannah assured him, “We knew this was going to happen eventually.”  
“I know it’s just—I’m nervous.” Sam admitted.  
“It’s going to be fine.” Hannah repeated.  
“Okay, but it something happens, or you just feel overwhelmed or weird, call me.” Sam urged.  
“Got it,” Hannah confirmed, “Now go.” Then she turned to Grace, who was in her arms, “Say goodbye to Daddy, little one.” She then took Grace’s pudgy little arm and waved.  
Sam gave both his girls a kiss on the forehead before hugging the twins. “You two be good for Mommy, okay?”  
“Okay.” The boys said, nodding.  
With that, Sam finally, reluctantly, left.  
A few hours later, Grace at her side, Dean and Castiel playing down the hall, Cyrus doing school work, Hannah was doing some much-needed laundry. Even though they were both at home and they had extra help, it had gotten a bit back up. Actually, a lot of things were getting back up. With two small children combined with the span of the place the bunker hadn’t exactly been tidy before, but with six of them and the baby taking a lot of time it starting to be a mess. Dishes got back up. There was always at least one toy over looked at put up time. Always. If Charlie and Magda hadn’t gone on a cleaning binge before they left, she had no doubt it would be even worse.  
As Hannah pulled out a load from the dryer Grace started to kick, getting fussy.  
“Let me guess, you’re hungry.” Hannah speculated, picking the little Nephilim up. It was getting about time for the mid-morning feeding. She may have come out several months ahead, but she still ate like a horse.  
She fed the child and was burping her when suddenly a torrent of white sick came spewing out of Grace’s mouth, right onto Hannah.  
“Ew!” Dean exclaimed, seeing the whole thing.  
“Grossie!” Castiel agreed.  
“It’s alright,” Hannah said, “We just need to clean her up, and change clothes.”  
Getting a bowl of warm water, Hannah walked Grace back to their room, holding the child away from her as to not make the mess any worst. Oddly enough, the baby didn’t seem to be very upset by the episode, just sat there looking at her as if you to say, can you please deal with this situation, please?  
“I’m working on it.” Hannah said, walking the baby into the room. “Here we go.” She removed Grace’s soiled clothes and wiped the baby down, then went to the drawers to get her some fresh ones, only to find them empty. “Oh, no.”  
Wrapping Grace in a blanket, Hannah took the now whimpering baby through the halls. “I know, I know,” She soothed, knowing Grace didn’t like it when she was cold. Not that she told them so, but Sam and Hannah could make deductions from observations. She went into the laundry room, carefully sitting the baby back in the bouncy chair for minute as the dryer stopped. Opening it, she found a pile of freshly dried onesies. “Perfect.” Pulling out the pink MY MOMMY READS ME BANNED BOOKS AT BEDTIME onesie, then took a pair of pink footed pants out of the basket she had been flooding, and slipped them on.  
“There you, go.” Hannah said, stoking Grace then running her hands through her hair, “Isn’t that much better?” At that point it was said to both of them.  
By chance, Cyrus, who had to use the bathroom and was still getting turned around in the bunker, walked by the laundry room. Stepping back, he asked, concerned, “Ah, Hannah, are you okay?”  
“Yeah,” Hannah responded, quickly trying to cover, “Yeah, it’s just, it’s just….” For some reason Hannah couldn’t finish the sentence. She was just so overwhelmed.  
“Here, let me help—” Cyrus began, stepping in, and starting folding.  
“Cyrus, no,” Hannah began, “You’re studying—”  
“One of the benefits of temporary homeschooling.” Cyrus reasoned, “You can stop when you need to. Look, you clearly need some help here. And besides, you’ve been housing and feeding me for a month, it’s the least I could do.”  
Just then Dean and Cas poked his own head in. “We help?” Dean asked.  
Hannah and Cyrus exchanged looks, then Hannah said, “Sure, little ones.”  
Shortly after that, after making sure the boys were distracted by their attempts at folding, Hannah told Cyrus, “I don’t know why I’m feeling so overwhelmed. I mean, we just had extra help for a while month and they were helping with things like this. How did it get so backed up in a week?”  
“Ah, six people, one of which spits up or poops herself a lot, and two who find their own ways to get messy.” Cyrus guessed.  
On the floor where they had been set up, Dean was wadding the little footed pants in a ball. “Nice try little one,” Hannah said, crouching down and taking it from in to show him the right way, “It goes like this, see?”  
“Okay.” Dean agreed, trying again. It was a little crooked but much better.  
“Good job.” Hannah told him running her fingers through his hair, then doing the same action with Cas, “I’m proud of you both, being so helpful.”  
Sam spent most of the day on auto pilot.  
“Alright, guys,” Sam greeted the dogs as he rounded them up to take out, “Time to head out.”  
He walked the dogs around the yard, his mind going back to the bunker. Were they doing alright? Was Hannah handling things on her own okay? He looked down at his pocket, wondering if he should check his phone.  
“Ah, Sam,” Kyle called out, sticking his head out from where he had been cleaning the pins, “You lost one.”  
Sam shook himself from his stupor, and found, yes, the least of rather obese golden retriever had slipped from his hand, and was now waddling his way down the yard.  
“George!” Sam exclaimed running after the wayward pooch, much to chagrin of the rest of the dogs who kept trying to pull Sam back to their regular route, barking away.  
“Hey, don’t blame me, blame George.” Sam told them catching up with the rather slow dog and slipping the leash back around his wrist.  
When Sam got back in with the dogs, he put them back in their freshly cleaned pins, then went to the corner and pulled out his cell phone, calling home. Listening to the dial tone, he started to get anxious. What if something was wrong? What if someone had broken in? What if one of the kids were hurt? What if Hannah had an episode?  
At last someone picked up. “Hey, Sam, everything okay?”  
Sam broke into a relieved smile at the sound of his wife’s voice. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I mean, George got away from me for a minute, but he’s not exactly a star athlete that guy wasn’t going anywhere. I, um was actually about to ask you the same thing.”  
“We’re all good here.” Hannah assured him, “The boys just helped me with some laundry, mainly folding, they’re not very good at it yet, and, ah, I left them playing with the baby.” She glanced back to where she left the boys on a blanket with Grace, Dean rolling a ball to her, which she awkwardly caught, then put her mouth around.  
“Ew, Gracie!” Dean scolded, “You’re supposed to throw it to Cas.”  
“Dean, I think that’s bit above her head.” Cyrus called to them from where he was sitting with them, working on biology.  
Just then Kyle walked in again. “Sam? I got George’s bath ready.”  
“Okay,” Sam nodded, “Gotta go, babe, love you.”  
“Love you, too.” Hannah replied, before she hung up.  
Around that time, the boys walked up to Cyrus, staring at him. Sensing their presence, the teens looked up. “Hey, guys. What’s up?”  
“Whatcha reading?” Dean asked.  
“Biogeology.” Cyrus told him.  
“What’s biogeo—biogeo—” Cas began.  
“It’s how the body works.” Cyrus explained, hopping that was plain enough for four-year olds.  
“Why are you reading about that?” Cas questioned.  
“Because when you get a bigger it’s one of the things you have to learn when you get bigger.” Cyrus explained.  
That was when Hannah walked back in. “Boys, let Cyrus work.”  
“It’s alright, Hannah.” Cyrus assured her, somewhat embarrassed, “They’re fine.” He liked the little guys and was going to miss them when he left anyway.  
That was when Grace started to try to move, slowly making her way to the boys.  
“Mommy, look!” Cas exclaimed, “Grace is crawling!”  
“She is!” Hannah began, excited, pulling out her to phone to record the event for Sam.  
Sam pushed the lawn motor across the lawn, trying to keep it straight. This was weird, maybe it was time he invested in better equipment. Or maybe he was tired. At this point, either was possible. Suddenly he found himself going headlong into the tulip tree in the front yard. Sam swerved, missing the tree, but leaving a long uneven gash in the lawn. “Great.” He muttered, whipping his brow.  
When Sam got in that evening, found Dean and Castiel on a blanket with Grace, trying help her stack her Dalek, looking up when they heard the door open. “Daddy!” They both shouted, running towards the stairs, as per usually when Cas turned around and said, “Gracie!”  
Dean turned around, realizing that their sister might want to hug Daddy as well. Then Dean had an idea. “Cas, we need Coat.”  
Laying Coat down on the blanket, Dean began to put Grace on it, intending to carry her to their father.  
“Ah, guys, no, I’ll come to you.” Sam declared, hurrying down the stairs where the boys jumped int his arms. After hugging them he picked up Grace, kissing her bald head. “You guys have a good day today?”  
“Uh-huh.” Cas answered.  
“We helped Mommy with laundry!” Dean declared happily.  
“Yeah, she told me about that.” Sam said. “She said you were very helpful. And, ah, where is Mommy now?”  
Sam found Hannah in the kitchen, checking on the tuna casserole he had put in the oven to reheat. In addition to the meals they had prepared while they were anticipating Grace’s birth, people had brought stuff over after, so they had basically been reheating meals for the last month, though they were about to run out.  
“Babe, you didn’t have to do that.” Sam told her, coming over to her, “I would have taken care of it when I got back.”  
“Sam, you just got off our work.” Hannah reasoned, “This is how we’ve always done it.” Ever since they both got actual jobs, since at least one person tried to be off at a time, usually whoever was off took care of the meals.  
“I know but—” Sam began.  
“Sam,” Hannah cut him off, “It’s okay. So, how did it go today?”  
“Good, actually.” Sam responded, “Everybody wanted to see pictures of the Grace.”  
“Speaking of which,” Hannah said, pulling out her phone, “Look what Grace did today.” She walked over to him and began to play the video.  
Sam stared wide-eyed at the lingerie store at the mall. This was dumb. They were waiting for him to get back home. Hannah said she was fine and there hadn’t been another incident…  
“Come on, don’t be a baby.” Rawls urged, actually pushing Sam into the store.  
As Sam looked at the stacks of frilly underwear and models in negligee, Sam was beginning to wonder if this was a good idea. “This was mistake. I shouldn’t be doing this—”  
That was when a saleswoman walked over to him. “Gentlemen, can I help you?”  
“Yes, ah, my wife just had a baby, and um, I was hopping I could get her something nice.” Sam explained awkwardly.  
The woman nodded knowingly. “Ah, I see. Berries or melons?  
“Mangos.” Rawls spoke up.  
“Hey,” Sam whirled around, “Have you been looking at her fruit?”  
“Gentlemen.” The saleswoman said, to get their attention.  
“You know what, this was a bad idea.” Sam declared, baking up.  
“A bad idea for the mother of your child?” The saleswoman questioned.  
Sam was silent, not sure how or if to respond.  
“If you want this relationship to work, you’re going to need my help.” The saleswoman declared, grabbing serval bras from the rack.  
A few days later, Sam was putting Grace down to sleep for the night. “Hey, Gracie, I got something to show you.” He pulled out a lavender bra and underwear set. “I got this for Mommy. Do you think she’ll like it?”  
Grace responded by just staring up at him, blankly.  
Sam sighed. “I’m not sure either. I mean, what if she takes it as an insult?”  
Grace just stared up at him.  
Sam sighed. That was when he heard someone say behind him, “Sam, what are you doing?”  
Sam whirled around to see Hannah standing in the doorway.  
“I was just putting Gracie down.” Sam told her.  
Cocking her head, Hannah pointed out. “With some sort of undergarments?”  
Sam sighed, knowing he was trapped. “The truth is I bought this for you, so maybe you would feel…I don’t know, better about your body.”  
“But I wasn’t feeling bad about it before.” Hannah responded, confused.  
“I know,” Sam admitted, “But I figured these might fit better.”  
Hannah took them from her and looked at them, a small smile forming on her face. “One way to find out….”  
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Sam asked, more nervous than intrigue, “I mean, isn’t there a certain amount of time you have to wait after pregnancy before you can, and we’re still doing the ovulation test, and then there was that—that thing we talked about, and the baby’s here…”  
“Then you can just look.” Hannah smiled coyly, before that smile that, “I mean, if you still…”  
“Hannah, there’s not one else I would rather look at it.” Sam assured, looking straight at her.  
That was all Hannah needed to hear. Before they could discuss the matter any further, she was taking her blazer off, then both tops only stopping long enough to look at Grace and said. “Gracie, don’t do what Mommy’s about to do until someone puts a gold or silver band on your third finger.”  
“DeanCas!” Maudie shouted, throwing herself at boys, who both went in for a hug.  
It was their first day back watching Maudie while Reason working. The young mother felt a little guilty, but Serena Joy was on the day shift with a catering event to follow, Vinny was out of town, and Maudie had been missing them, so she didn’t have much of a choice.  
“Thanks again, guys.” Reason handing a tray of jars filled with clear brown jam, with thin slices, of apple floating in it, preserved pears, pickled peaches, and thick bright, lemon crud along with a bag of potatoes to Sam, “Here.”  
“Reason, you don’t—” Sam began.  
“I’m handing you an extra kid on top of two four-year olds, a teenager, and a baby that’s a little over a month old.” Reason cut him off, “This is the least I can do.”  
After her Mom left, Dean and Cas wanted to show Maudie their sister. Maudie sat on the blanket with Gracie, staring down at her and Grace stared back. “Why are her eyes two different colors?”  
“Mommy and Daddy says that happened sometimes.” Dean admitted.  
Sam, who had been filling out the paperwork to become an unaccredited private school while keeping an eye on the kids, came over and crouched down, explaining, “Sometimes people are born with two different eye colors. It doesn’t happen that much but when it does, it’s called Heterochromia.”  
“Hetero—hetero—” Maudie began.  
Sam laughed. “Eh, don’t hurt yourself kid.”  
A little while later, Hannah, who had been feeling out some orders for things she needed for starting back door to door, stuck her head in. “Everything going okay in here?”  
“Yeah,” Sam answered, “The Happy Sun Year-Round Academy is up and running, kids are happy, Maudie is holding Grace like a champ, all is right with the world.”  
“Speaking of which, it’s almost time for her to eat.” Hannah said, walking over to the kids, “Or at least about the time she lets us know she’s hungry.” She leaned down to pick Grace up.  
“No.” Maudie moaned, unwilling to let the little Nephilim go.  
“It’s okay, I’ll bring her back.” Hannah assured her, managing to get her to relinquish the child. She began to head towards the kitchen, “How did we come up with that name again?”  
“Someone brough up the creepypasta with werewolf day care janitor as a joke and then that was the only name anyone could come up with.” Sam reminded her.  
After the feeding, Hannah brought Grace back. “Can I have a turn now?” Dean asked, “Maudie and Cas said I could.”  
Hannah wasn’t sure how much more holding Grace was up to, but decided to chance it. “Alright,” Hannah agreed, helping the little boy get a hold of her, “Remember, support the head. And if she gets tired and wants you to stop, put her on the blanket.”  
Dean nodded his agreement to the terms. Maudie and Cas had started building a wall out of blocks by the blanket. That’s when things went wrong. They build their wall way too high and way too thin. It started to bend. They got out of the way, but Dean didn’t move fast enough, and soon found himself pelted with blocks. He covered the baby, and Sam swooped in quickly scooping them both up, but the noise scared Grace and the whole thing scared Dean and both started to cry.  
Hannah had been closing enough to be back in a few seconds. “What happened?”  
“Block wall fell down.” Sam said quickly, sitting Dean down on the table, “These two got caught in the crossfire. Come on, bud, I need to have a look at you.”  
Dean looked up and Sam began to examine him.  
“Are Dean and Grace gonna be okay?” Cas asked, heartbroken that they had hurt his brother and little sister.  
After another moment of examination, he declared, “Yeah, yeah, he’s gonna be just fine.” However, Dean was still upset by what had occurred. “Hey, hey, hey, you’re okay, bud, bud, you’re okay.” However, it appeared Dean was going to take a moment to calm down. Grace wailing at the top of her lungs probably wasn’t helping. “Hannah, can you check Grace?”  
That was when the lights started to flicker.  
“What the—” Sam began.  
“It’s probably Grace.” Hannah speculated as she rushed over. She picked her, quickly finding there was no injury. “I know, I know it was scary.”  
“So that means she’s okay?” Sam asked hopefully.  
“Yes,” Hannah confirmed, “Yes, just scared.” Then she began addressing the baby as she bounced her up and down, “I know, I know.”  
As Grace began quiet the likes stopped flickering. Soon Grace had calmed down. However, now Maudie and Castiel were both crying their eyes out in guilt.  
“We didn’t mean to!” Maudie sobbed.  
“Hey, hey,” Sam soothed, crouching down next to them, “We know you didn’t. And no one was hurt, see? But new rule—no blocks by the blanket. For safety.”  
Sam opened the door, and found Tova standing in the doorway. “Hey,” Sam greeted her, “Thanks for coming.”  
“Thanks for having me.” Tova replied as they walked down the stairs. She knew that Sam and the rest of the Winchester clan had a lot on their plate right now.  
“Sorry about the mess,” Sam apologized, stepping over the little pink bear that had been left at the foot of the stairs picking it up, “We, ah, can’t seem to get it under control.”  
“You should have seen my brother’s place when they had their first kid.” Tova told her, “Dishes piled, up, layer of dust on half the furniture, and poor Dinah didn’t shower for—I don’t know how long, and yes, toys everywhere. And this was with us being there help out.”  
Dean and Castiel stuck their head out from under the table.  
“Guys, “Sam cautioned, “Indoor voice. Remember, Gracie’s asleep.”  
The boys very quietly ran up and hugged Tova.  
“Hey, little guys,” Tova grinned at them, leaning down and pulling bag of candy out of her back pack and handing it to them.  
“Tova, between you and Charlie their teeth are gonna rot.” Sam commented.  
“Come on, there just baby teeth anyway.” Tova protested in jest, “We’ll let up when the real ones come in.” Then she addressed the boys, “Listen, I need to talk to your Dad a minute, okay?”  
“Okay.” Dean agreed reluctantly, and both boys went back to what they were doing.  
As Tova walked over to the table, several small pieces of paper fell from her backpack. “Tova, you—” Sam began, picking them up and realizing they were postcards, mostly from England. Accidently seeing the name of sender, he asked. “Who’s Mick?”  
“Someone I’d rather not talk about. Or think about. Or even remember exists.” Tova began, picking up the rest of the cards and putting the back in. Setting down the bag at the table, she changed the subject quickly. “So, where’s Hannah?”  
“First day back making deliveries to her regulars.” Sam explained, “She’s been calling like every five minutes to check in. She’s, ah, easing herself into it, doesn’t want to be away from the baby for too long just yet, even thought about taking her with her, but she was about ready for naptime when she left.”  
“Has she recovered enough to do that?” Tova, questioned, concerned, “Hannah, I mean, obviously.”  
“She’s healing faster than normal.” Sam told her, “And her powers and strength are coming back. It’s still a bit of a process, though.”  
“And mentally?” Tova asked.  
“She’s had a couple moments.” Sam began, “She’s been having appointments with Lizzie Donovan, this, uh, this hunter who use to be a therapist and still does if on the side, bi-weekly, but it was like pulling teeth to even get her to do that.”  
Tova gave him an understanding, sympathetic look. Then she asked, “And the boy? Where is he?”  
“Hannah dropped him off at the library on her way.” Sam told her, “It, ah, can get a little noisy around her, he needs the quiet to work sometimes. Plus, ah, they way you sounded on the phone, I didn’t want him to overhear until I could plan out what I was going to say. Didn’t sound like good news.”  
“It’s not.” Tova admitted, “Elena was an only child. I managed to track down her parents only to find they both died within weeks of each other before she signed up for the match making service the Stynes used to find their victims. In fact, it looks like part of the reason she signed up was she was hoping for a fresh start. She has an uncle on her mom’s side who died in a car accident when Elena was a girl, an aunt, also on her mom’s side who Mom had a falling out before Elena was even born. They never met and when I tracked the woman down to Odessa and explained the situation, obviously leaving out the more fantastic details, she told me she was glad the niece she never met was dead as well as several things my translator was too embarrassed to repeat in any language.”  
“Seriously?” Sam repeated in shock.  
Tova nodded. “Her own children were a bit more sympathetic to their cusion’s plight, but was scared of their mother making their lives Hell just for spite, and after meeting the woman, I can’t blame them, it would be unfair to dump the kid into that powder keg after everything he’s already been through anyway. Our next best bet is a great uncle on his grandfather’s side, Elena’s father’s side, but I have spent over a fortnight traveling over Eastern Europe trying to locate him, but every time I think I’ve found him it’s turned out he’s moved on and I’m not even sure he’s alive.”  
Sam rubbed his face.  
“I’m sorry, I wish I had better news.” Tova apologized.  
“It’s okay.” Sam assures her, “It’s not your fault. Thanks for helping us anyway.”  
Just then a pink baby blanket floated in from down the hall. “What the—” Tova began.  
“This happens sometimes.” Sam explained, getting up to retrieve the blanket., “Grace doesn’t really have control of her powers, because, well, she’s a baby, so she’ll accidently move things with her mind.” He snatched the blanket from mid-air, pulling it down.  
“Nice save.” Tova complimented him, “I didn’t even know angels could do that—"  
Just then the were cut off by a loud infant’s wail and the lights began to flicker.  
“This also happens sometimes when she gets upset.” Sam began, standing up, “I’ll go get her.”  
When there was a cup of coffee waiting for her when she got home, Hanna knew it wasn’t going to be good news.  
“There’s no one?” Hannah questioned when Sam was gone, “No one at all?”  
“That might one of the reasons they picked her in the first place.” Sam speculated, “Not a lot of people to ask questions. It was part of their MO.”  
In the aftermath of the battle, they, or at least people they trusted, went through the rubble, looked at the files, and while they didn’t know everything about the crazy family, that they were able to put a lot of their dark shenanigans together. Including their breading program.  
Sam rubbed his face. “I don’t—I honestly don’t know what our next move is here. I don’t know, maybe I could talk to Jody, or Charlie….”  
That was Hannah suggested, “Or maybe we could keep him.”  
Sam snorted, causing Hannah to look at him perplexed. “You’re serious?”  
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Hannah responded.  
“Hannah, we already have three kids, including a young baby, “Sam countered.  
“He’ll be an adult in less than three years.” Hannah reasoned, “He’s pretty low maintenance, the boys adore him, he’s really helpful around the bunker.” After a beat, Hannah said, “That came out wrong. I didn’t mean to imply we keep him as an indentured servant. “  
“I know what do you meant.” Sam assured her,” Do you really think he’s going to want to stay? I mean, we did kill his family.”  
“Cyrus hated his family.” Hannah argued, “What they did. He told me so at the mansion. Besides, from that logic, we do kind of owe him.”  
“Look, this is a big decision for everyone involved.” Sam came to finally, “Maybe we should take a minute and think about it. Just take a few days.”  
“Fair enough.” Hannah agreed, “Now, which one of us is going to tell him?”  
“I’ll do it when I pick him up.” Sam agreed.  
When he saw Sam’s face when he pulled up to the library, Cyrus knew it wasn’t going to be good.  
Sam took a breath, then began, soberly. “Cyrus, I have bad news. A hunter friend of mind’s been looking into your mother’s family. Her parents, your grandparents, they, um, they passed away. So did her uncle on her mother’s side and her mom’s sister is, well, she’s horrible. There’s one more uncle, but, um, by friend is having trouble finding him. I’m sorry.”  
Cyrus just sat there his sinking. What would he do now?  
“Hey, you can stay with us as long as you need.” Sam assured him.  
“Thanks, because I—I really don’t know what I’m gonna do now.” Cyrus declared, rubbing his face with his hands. As much as he loathed his family he had also never been on his own before, and now there was officially no he could reach out to. At sixteen his option for renting a place were limited. He had applied for a few jobs in town, but the phone wasn’t ringing. He might still have his family’s money, but they were still trying to figure that out, and even if he had access to it, he really didn’t want to touch it. It was blood money. Plus, he would probably still have to be legally an adult to use the money. Overwhelmed, he lamented, “I don’t—I don’t even have a driver’s license.”  
That took Sam by surprise. “Really?”  
“I mean, I have a learner’s permit.” Cyrus elaborated, “But you have to have a certain amount of hour’s practice before you can take the driving test. I kept trying to get someone to take me but they just kept putting me off. I’m not even sure this is legal here.”  
Sam pulled over to the side of the road. “Well, maybe it’s time we rectify it.”  
“What are you—” Cyrus began.  
“Let’s have you take her the rest of the way.” Sam suggested opening the car door.  
“What?” Cyrus balked, “Sam, you can’t be serious.”  
“Come on,” Sam urged, “If you don’t know the rest of the way yet, I can direct you, and if a cop pulls us over—we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”  
“Ah, okay.” Cyrus somewhat reluctantly agreed, getting out a switching paper with Sam.  
“Okay, so, there’s the gear shift.” Sam instructed, “Now, put it in drive.”  
Cyrus did and slowly, nervously pulled away from the curb.  
“Alright, alright, now what you want to do is keep going until you get to that right turn, I’ll point it out when it gets closer.” Sam continued.  
Grace was lying on her blanket; an arm thrown over her forehead and eyes in a dramatic motion.  
“Life is so hard when all you have to do is eat, sleep and poop, isn’t it?” Hannah smiled down at her.  
That was Maudie stuck her head in. “Miss Hannah? Can you come play with us? We promise you can be a bad guy or a hero.”  
Hannah smirked. “I can guess what the game is. Let’s see if Gracie will comply.” She wrapped her in her blanket, and followed Maudie. Grace didn’t seem to mind.  
Knights Dean and Castiel peered out from the teepee they were “trapped” in while witches Maudie and Hannah were tending a fire, when “cat” Grace began to coo. As the ersatz witches went to check on her, Dean and Cas snuck out and made a break for it.  
Catching sight of them, Maudie declared, “The food is getting away!” before giving chase while Hannah tended to the cat, when there was a knock on the door.  
“Hold.” Hannah called out, though it then occurred to her that this part could have gone on without her presence.  
When Hannah opened the door, Tabbris was standing there. “Oh,” She began, “That time of the month already. “When she realized he wasn’t alone, she tilted her head. “Ruth, what are you doing here?”  
“Hey, I’m in on this conspiracy, too.” Ruth justified.  
“That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Hannah commented as she led them down the stairs, “I have to warn you, the bunker is a bit of a mess.”  
“You just have a baby.” Tabbris pointed out, “No one’s place is immaculate those first months.”  
Ruth leaned over to Tabbris and whispered, “Is that true or are you just trying to spare her feelings?”  
“It’s true.” Tabbris hissed, shooting her a look.  
“Sorry.” Ruth shirked back, “I’m the only one here who hasn’t produced a baby, how am I supposed to know?”  
As they got to the bottom of stairs the children ran by. “Kids, inside chasing.” Hannah called after them.  
“This is normal, right?” Ruth whispered over to Tabbris, just wanting confirmation.  
“I think so.” Tabbris confirmed.  
“Castiel, can you come here for a minute?” Hannah called out.  
Cas stopped and walked up to the group. “Hi.” After a beat he asked, “Who that?” As he said it, he pointed out Ruth.  
“This is my friend Ruth.” Tabbris introduced them, “Ruth, this is Castiel.”  
Cas smiled up at her. “Hi.”  
“Hi, Castiel.” Ruth greeted her, “It’s nice to see you again.”  
“We have a baby sister now.” Cas informed them as they sat down to talk, playing with the little blue pastel lamb he had gotten for Easter, Hannah watching from the doorway, uneased by the added presence, “She came out of Mommy’s tummy.”  
“I saw her.” Tabbris commented, “She’s cute. Tell me, Cas, how do you like being a big brother so far?”  
“It’s okay.” Cas shrugged, “Gracie doesn’t do much yet, and you have to be careful with her. She’s also a lot of work, buy Mommy and Daddy let us help sometimes. I like to feed her. She eats a lot, but she only eats milk now.”  
Tabbris nodded. “And what about Dean. How does Dean feel about all this?”  
“He loves Grace too.” Cas confirmed.  
“So, everything good here?” Hannah asked once the interview was done and Cas had gone back to playing with his siblings and Maudie.  
“We’re good.” Ruth assured her, “Remember I have good reason to keep my mouth shut. Unless you’re beating the kid, I’m not gonna rock the boat.”  
They both looked at her.  
“Well, even I know that’s bad.” Ruth reasoned.  
“Tabbris,” Hannah began, “Can I talk to you in private? It’s about Grace.”  
Tabbris followed Hannah into the stacks. “What is it? Is she alright?”  
“Yes, she’s fine.” Hannah assured him, “She’s healthy, she’s mostly happy, really only cries when she’s hungry, scared or cold. But---there have been incidents. With her powers. She accidently moves things, telekinetically, she’ll make the lights flicker when she cries, and last weekend she accidently broke Sam’s hand. Is this—is this normal? Is there anything we can do about it? Can we—I don’t, bind her powers somehow, until she’s old enough to handle it.”  
“Hannah—there’s never going to be a good time for her to handle to it.” Tabbris told her, “Remember Nephilim are almost always more powerful than the angelic parent. You’re a common angel, so that’ll probably put Grace on the level of a Seraph by the time she’s fully grown. I’m not even sure a binding ritual exists, sort of just raising her in a warded building or a ring of holy oil.” After a moment of consideration, Tabbris offered, “Look, if you want, I can try to talk to Abigail.”  
Hannah froze at the mention of the name. No one in the house hold had so much as spoken Abigail’s name since Hannah and Grace’s rescue. Something about it just sent a paralyzing chill up the angel’s spine.  
“Hannah?” Tabbris spoke up, causing her to snap out of it, “Hannah, you okay?”  
Hannah shook it off. “Yes, yes, I’m alright. What—what happened to Abigail? After you took her?”  
“Me and her sister have been basically keeping her on lockdown at the dive bar.” Tabbris explained, “Oliva doesn’t trust to her to let her out of her sight, after what happened, and honestly I don’t blame her. The physic, she kidnapped, Melanie? She moved down to Florida, calls in everyday to make sure we still have her. Poor thing says she doesn’t feel safe unless she knows, and I quote, ‘exactly where that nut job is’.”  
“That poor girl.” Hannah agreed, “I understand the feeling. “She looked down. “Tabbris how long—” She finally looked up again, “How long do you think you and Oliva can keep that up?”  
Realizing where this was going, Tabbris assured her, “She’s not a threat to you or your family, Hannah. Not anymore at least.”  
“And how can you be sure?” Hannah challenged, “Because that what’s we thought the last time and I had my baby strapped down to an operating table and my husband was nearly killed, my children left to die.”  
In spite of himself, Tabbris stared. He wanted to try to soften the blow, say harming the boys and Sam hadn’t been Abigail’s intention, but even he knew that didn’t make what she did any better.  
“I’m sorry.” Hannah began, “I didn’t mean—”  
“No, it’s okay.” Tabbris assured her, “You have every right to be upset or angry, or wary, or anything other thing you feel after what she did. You were put a terrifying ordeal with your child because of her. But we do have it under control, and if ever there is a problem, you will be the first one to know.”  
“Thank you.” Hannah responded.  
That was when Ruth walked back into the room. “Ah, sorry, to interrupt, but there is something we all need to talk about together before we leave.”  
“Oh, we were just about done, I think.” Hannah began, “Is there a problem?”  
“I wouldn’t exactly say it’s problem, but at some point, we are going to have to speak about issue of your other job.” Ruth explained.  
It took a minute for Hannah to realize what she means. “You mean hunting rouges.” She couldn’t search for unaccounted for angels while she was pregnant for a plethora of reasons—it was physically dangerous, she couldn’t fight if needed to as well, and of course any angel she found would notice she was pregnant-- and since giving birth it had been the last thing on her mind. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been—”  
“I’m not admonishing you, Hannah.” Ruth cut her off, “And even among of majority that don’t know about Grace, everybody knows you have a lot on your hands, which is why no one’s said anything. But eventually they will. I’m thinking that perhaps it’s time we find someone else to give that assignment to, or alternatively it’s time we assign someone to assist you.”  
They both looked at her in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind?” Hannah balked.  
“Ruth, assisting her would mean coming here, and coming here would mean a chance they put it all together.” Tabbris pointed out.  
“Well, then one of us can do it.” Ruth suggested, “We’re already in on the secret, one of us could keep a lid on things in Heaven, the other could help you down here and do the leg work so Hannah wouldn’t have to travel so much.”  
Hannah had to admit, her logic was sound. “Alright, give me a week to get things ready, I’ll show you the murder board. All the leads are ice cold by now, but it’s start.”  
“So far, it’s actually going well.” Hannah told the grey eyed blonde she was talking to over a video call, “Ruth’s a quick study.”  
At first Hannah had resisted Sam’s attempt to get her to see Lizzie, insisting she was fine. She wasn’t having flashbacks, she wasn’t having nightmares, granted she was back to not needing to sleep, but still. Sure, she sometimes went on high alert for reasons she couldn’t explain, even while in the safety of the bunker, and she didn’t like talking about what happened, but she was fine. Then she started moving around more and gave in to the boy’s pleas to play, only to nearly have a panic attack while being the damsel in distress, a role she had played thousands of times before with no problem. It was then she realized she might need help.  
“Hannah, I’d—I’d like to step back to the conversation with Tabbris about Abigail.” Lizzie told her, “That was your first time talking about Abigail with anyone since the abduction, right?”  
“Yes, I—I think so.” Hannah admitted.  
“And how do you feel when you talk about her?” Lizzie probed, “When someone else talks about her?”  
Hannah found herself balling her hands into fist so tight her knuckles turned white.  
“Hannah…” Lizzie trailed off.  
“I feel angry.” Hannah confessed, “At her, for making me trust her, for betraying my trust, for putting my children in danger, for thinking she knew better when clearly she didn’t, if it wasn’t for her the Stynes wouldn’t have even known we existed, let alone would have been able to get into the bunker.” Her voice trailed off as she realized something, “And I think I’m mad at myself, too. For trusting her, after what she said to Sam. She just seemed so repentant and I kept thinking about what she went through.” She rubbed her face. “Now I just wish we had thrown that stupid toy back in her face. Now we can’t even get rid of it because the boys still like it and they don’t know what happened and they wouldn’t understand if we take it away…”  
“Hannah, Hannah, clam down.” Lizzie urged, seeing the angel getting worked up, “Breathe.”  
Hannah inhaled and exhaled slowly, serval times until she had calmed down.  
“Hannah, look, there was no way you could have known what she was up to.” Lizzie told her, “Some people are very good at hiding their true motives. I’ve never met the woman, but it seems like Abigail is one of them. She knew what buttons to hit, how to deceive you. There’s nothing wrong with compassion.”  
“Well if you ask her, I’m incapable of feeling that.” Hannah commented. After a beat she added, “Of course, ideally, we’re not supposed to feel that, but you get the point.” After another beat, she admitted something out, “Honestly, when Tabbris told me they were basically keeping her under lock and key, I was—I was glad. Not just because I knew we were safe from her, thought I did feel relief, but I also, I believe the term is Schadenfreude. When you’re happy because someone’s suffering?” After another pause, she came out with it. “Does that make me a bad person?”  
“Do you feel like a bad person?” Lizzie countered.  
“I don’t know….” Hannah began.  
“Look, bad feelings don’t necessary make someone a bad person.” Lizzie told her, “Everyone has a bad feeling at some point in their lives, its inevitable. It’s how you deal with the bad emotions.” She was quiet for a moment, jotting down a few notes then began, “Hannah, how would feel about seeing Abigail again, in a controlled setting, obviously, to tell her all this? Do you think you would feel up to that?”  
“What?” Hannah balked, confused.  
“Some people find it cathartic to confront their attacker.” Lizzie explained, “While Abigail wasn’t your only attacker, she was the driving force, like you said, she set everything in motion. While normally this isn’t a route I have available with my patients, because, well, if we’ve done our jobs write their attacker is dead, but—you have an opportunity to, but only if you want to do.”  
Hannah paused, unsure. “Do you –can I think about it?”  
“I’ve filled up every bottle we have.” Hannah was instructing Sam, that weekend, “You know the feeding times, right?”  
“Yes,” Sam assured her, “Hannah, I got this. Go spend some time with your sons.”  
“Thank you so much for doing this.” Hannah told her.  
“This was the plan, remember?” Sam reminded her, “See you in a few hours.”  
“Mommy, help!” Dean called out, fighting with the slippery turkey he was trying to put on the tooth pick.  
There was a healthy eating program that day, and the twins and their mom were surrounded by over a dozen toddlers and their parents all trying to make little kabobs with one item from each food group. Castiel seemed content to just eat the food as is, popping little bits in his mouth.  
As Hannah helped Dean with the turkey, the cup of water between the boys was knocked over spilling over the side. “Oops.” Cas commented, as Hannah began to whip it up.  
“…. buttons come and buttons go….” Hannah finished reading, Cas contently sitting in her lap and Dean playing by her feet. The event had finished up, kabobs had been eaten, but the boys had wanted to stay a little bit.  
Dean looked up and realized the crowds had started to thin. “Hey,” His eyes narrowed, “Where’d everybody go?”  
Looking up from Pete the Cat, Hannah said, “They must have all went to different things.”  
“Does that mean we have to go to different things, too?” Dean asked.  
“Well, we did bring that bread…” Hannah reminded them, as the idea of feeding ducks had been brought up.  
“Can we have one story first?” Cas asked.  
Dean seemed to like that idea. “Please?”  
Hannah smiled. “Just go pick it out.”  
“Where’s Gracie?” Sam was asking in a sing-sound voice, hands covering his face with his hand, “Where did she go? Did she disappear?” He removed his hands with a slightly exaggerated smile, “There she is!”  
Grace, who was right in front of Sam the whole time, began giggling, kicking her feet.  
Sam never thought he could ever actually find peek a boo stimulating. In fact, he wasn’t sure it was a thing people actually did. When Dean and Cas had been de-aged, they were still past the peek a boo stage, so he never had test to that theory. But now, playing it with Grace, he would do it forever just to hear that little laugh.  
Sam covered his face again. “Where’s Grace? Where’s Grace?” He pulled his hands back, “There she is! What are you trying to do to me here, Gracie?”  
Grace giggled and kick, getting so intense she actually flung her leg out, kicking Sam just below the shoulder, actually sending Sam about a foot back. Sore, Sam grabbed the aera. It didn’t seem she actually injured anything but it hurt like Hell.  
Realizing something was wrong, Grace’s kicking slowed, and she got an almost perplexed looked on her face.  
“It’s okay,” Sam assured her, adjusting himself so there was less chance of that happened again. “Daddy just got a little startled.” He covered his face again going, “Where’s Gracie…”  
Grace began to giggle and coo again, and all was well.  
Dean and Cas tromped around the edge of the pond, Hannah trailing behind holding onto the leads of their harnesses. She didn’t feel comfortable with them this close to the water without them, at least until they learned to swim.  
The pound was on the other side of the park from the play equipment, a bit out of the way, so they didn’t visit that often, however, the boys did like to come sometimes, because the pound was sometimes host to small group of ducks. However, possibly not today.  
“Mommy, where are the ducks?” Dean asked, sounding a bit put out that ducks hadn’t deemed to make an appearance.  
“I don’t know, little one.” Hannah admitted, looking around, “I’m afraid they might not be here, today.”  
Just when they were about to give up hope, two fluffy white ducks crossed their path. Hannah quickly handed each of the children a slice of stale bread, which Dean began to crumble up and throw to the birds. Cas however seemed a little hesitant.  
“It’s alright, Cas.” Hannah assured him, “Go on.”  
Cas began to throw bites of bread to the ducks, too, jumping back as they ate it up, even though the ducks were nowhere near them.  
Back at the bunker, Grace was contently slurping down a bottle in the safety of her father’s arms. Her eyes looked down at the bottle when the milk ran out, and she was suddenly less content.  
“What?” Sam responded, part-teasing, part serious, “You want more?”  
Grace started to get fussy.  
“Sorry, sorry, “Sam apologized, running for the fridge and pulling out the next bottle, “Just remember, Mommy’s out, so there’s no one to make more of this stuff if we run out.” He gave her another bottle which she drunk half of before letting him know she was finished. “Man, maybe we need to feed you more.”  
Latter on that day, Sam laid an almost asleep Grace down in her bed. “There we go.” Sam commented as he helped her adjust to be more comfortable. He stared at her a moment, when his cell phone went off. He flinched preparing for a grumpy baby’s cries, but his surprise, Grace didn’t wake up. Picking it up, he whispered, “Yeah?” And walked out of the room.  
Cyrus looked up as he heard footsteps coming down the hall. Sam appeared talking to someone on the phone. “I think I have it right here.” Sam was saying, going down the rows of the bookshelves, stopping, frowning in disconcertion when he realized the book, he was looking for was gone.  
Cyrus recognized it as the place where the book he was reading had been. “Sam,” He began awkwardly getting up and handing the book to Sam, “I think this might be what you’re looking for.”  
“Thanks,” Sam said, taking the book and flipping through it, “Yeah, you’re going need salt and sliver stakes. Lots of sliver. Yeah, no problem, Clive.” With that hunters hung up. “What we’re doing with this, anyway?” Sam asked, looking down at the book, perplexed.  
“I just like going through the books sometimes.” Cyrus admitted, “You guys have, like, the coolest library ever.” He then glanced down. “Sorry.”  
“Hey, don’t worry about it.” Sam told before commenting, “Kid after my own heart.”  
It was then Sam’s phone rang again.  
From that point on, for thirty minutes straight that pair was pulling up lore, hunters calling Sam one after another. It was as if every hunter in the lower 48 all had problems at once, and they all came to Sam.  
“No problem Darrel.” Sam said getting off the phone, then realized how long it was been. “I need to go check on Grace.” If she wasn’t up by now, she would be soon.  
Just then his phone rang again.  
Cyrus got up. “You get that, I can check on her.”  
Sam was too frazzled to argue at that point, and since it’s not like Grace was crying, he agreed. “Thank you.” He breathed, answering the phone.  
Grace was lying awake in her crib. At first, she had been alright, but no face was showing up to get her when by the now they usually appeared. She started to squirm, starting to make noises.  
Just then Cyrus came into the room. “Hey, Grace,” He greeted her gently, picking her up, “I’m sorry. We didn’t mean it.” Grace however, was still crying, albeit softer than her usual howls, which was probably why the lights weren’t flickering. “Hey, hey, it’s okay now. Sssh. “He walked around the room with her, “You with the sad eyes. Don’t be discouraged. Oh, I realize, it’s hard to take courage in a world full of people, you can lose sight of it all, and the darkness inside you, can make you feel so small. But I see your true colors, shining through. I see your true colors and that’s why I love you, so don’t be afraid to let to let them show. You true colors, true colors, are beautiful, like a rainbow.”  
The singing and rocking seemed to calm Grace down.  
“There now,” Cyrus began, “That’s not so bad, is it?”  
Just then Sam came in saying, “Okay, turns out that was just a wrong number—” His voice trailed off, looking at Grace smiling up at the teen.  
“What?” Cyrus asked, “Is everything okay?”  
“Yeah, it’s just---you’re so good with her.” Sam complimented.  
“She’s not that hard.” Cyrus brushed it up modestly, before turning back to the baby, “You’re not so hard, are you, Grace?”  
Suddenly Sam got an idea, about something he and Hannah had been talking on and off about for about week. “Hey, how would you feel about babysitting a little later this month?”  
“Sorry about the mess.” Sam said, as he walked down the stairs with Jody and Alex. That seemed to be their motto these days.  
“Sam, you just have baby.” Jody reminded them, “You should have seen my place.”  
Grace was on her blanket banging two parts of a staking ring together when Jody entered the room. “Hey there.” Jody grinned, crouching down on the floor, Grace staring up at the new comer curiously.  
A little while later, they sat down at the table, Jody holding the baby. “So, Sam, how are you and Hannah holding up?” She knew from experience that first year wasn’t easy. Sure, they had experience with the boys, and toddlers could be a challenge in and of themselves, but still, at least they slept more. She could scarely imagine handling a baby and two toddlers at the same time.  
“I, ah, I think we’re doing okay, I think.” Sam replied, sitting down.  
Jody raised an eye brow.  
Sam sighed. “Okay, there have been some challenges. I mean, I’ve only been this tired maybe one time before in my life and I don’t even do most of the nightwork, Hannah won’t let me, speaking of Hannah, Lizzie thinks she should confront Abigail, but she keeps going back and forth, Dean and Cas got a bit jealous, and I’m surprised we even have clean clothes.” His eyes went over to the sink, “And I just realized I never cleaned up from breakfast.”  
Just then Hannah came in. “Okay, the kids are keeping Alex and Cyrus busy—” Her voice trailed off when she saw the dishes. “I thought you were going to take care of that!” She moaned, running over to put them in the dishes.  
“I was, but Grace was hungry, and you had to make that run— “Sam began.  
“Here, “Jody said, handing Grace back to her father, then went over to sink and began resigning dishes, telling Hannah, “Sit down.”  
“Jody—” Hannah began.  
“Sit down.” Jody cut her off, then went to work.  
“This really isn’t necessary.” Hannah protested later, watching Jody, Alex and Cyrus dust the stacks.  
“We want to help.” Alex assured them.  
“But all you did was clean last time you were here.” Sam insisted. While they couldn’t stay as long and Charlie and Magda, Jody and Alex had stayed for a little bit to help.  
Before they could debate the issue further, there was a knock on the door. “I’ll get it.” Sam volunteered, going up the stairs and opening the door. After peeking and seeing it was Reason, she opened it. “Reason? You’re early, is everything okay?”  
“Yeah, we got out early and I thought I could take Maudie off your hands for a little bit.” Reason explained, walking down he saw the group cleaning, “What’s going on here?”  
“Popped in for a visit, one thing lead to another.” Jody explained.  
Suddenly Reason got an idea. “Hey, as long as I’m here, why don’t I take all the kids for a little while. Grace, even?”  
Sam and Hannah exchanged looks. What was going on here?  
“I’ll go with her.” Cyrus volunteered  
“And what exactly would we be doing?” Hannah asked blankly, trying to figure this out.  
“Whatever you want.” Reason told them, “Look, the first six months are incredibly hard. No sleep, no time to take a shower, laundry piles up, toys strewn everywhere, unsolicited advice every other time you go out, isolation—I mean, I love Maudie, but she like a tiny angry guess that wouldn’t go away. Let us do this for you.”  
That was how Sam and Hannah found themselves pratically pushed into the Impala. Exchanging looks Hannah asked, “What do we do now?”  
“I guess we could just…drive.” Sam suggested.  
Seeing the bags under her husband’s eyes Hannah suggested, “Maybe I should drive.”  
“Okay, that’s a good idea.” Sam agreed.  
Five minutes later, as Hannah drove down the road, she peered over at Sam. He was out like a light.  
“There we go.” Alex chimed, pulling up Grace’s pants as the baby laid out on the changing table. Picking her up, Alex grinned, “Let’s go see what your brothers are doing.”  
When Alex arrived back in the newly cleaned stacks, he sounds the boys thumping Cyrus with their carboard swords. “Mercy, mercy,” The teen mock cried out.  
Dean froze. “You’re not gonna tickle us, are you?”  
“Why would I do that?” Cyrus askes, confuse.  
Dean pointed at Alex with his sword. “She does when she pulls that.”  
Alex smirked at the oddly adult Dean-like sentence. “It’s true, I have a bad habit of doing sneak tickle attacks.”  
With that cleared up, Cyrus turned back to the boys. “No sneak tickle attacks, I promise.”  
The toddlers pulled back, letting the older boy up. Alex went to sit Grace down with her brothers, only for the baby to grab fistfuls of her dark hair. “What—”  
“She does that.” Cyrus commented, “She even managed to get mine.”  
“She pulled on my wings, too.” Cas noted.  
“What a naughty, naughty thing you are.” Alex teased, “Naughty, naughty superbaby.” Just then Grace pulled harder, forcing Alex’s head forward. “Ah!” She screamed which upset Grace, but the baby still didn’t let go, and in fact began to pull harder.  
“Gracie, Gracie, Gracie,” Cyrus began, managing to stick his finger Grace’s grip, “I’m gonna try something.” He managed to use his finger to pry Alex’s hair free of Grace’s grip. “There. You okay?”  
“Yeah,” Alex confirmed, pulling her hair back so Grace couldn’t get to it.  
“She does that, too.” Cyrus said, “She doesn’t really know her own strength yet. I think she even broke Sam’s hand once.”  
“I’ll be sure to keep my hair up around this one, then.” Alex noted, “If you got things here, I better get to the bathrooms.”  
“Ah, Reason said she’d take care of that. “Cyrus told her, reaching out and taking Alex’s hand, “Stay. Please.”  
“Yeah, Alex, stay.” Dean requested eagerly.  
“Please?” Cas added.  
Alex smiled. “How could I say no?”  
“Here we go.” Sam said, sitting their meals down at the table. Somehow, after Sam woke up, they wound up at White Castle. It had a special meaning for them, because that was where they had their first “date” even if they actually hadn’t been together at the time. It was where Sam realized he loved Hannah.  
“Thank you.” Hannah told him, picking up a slider, “You know we should take some back to thank everyone for helping. Don’t they have those large boxes here.”  
“Yeah.” Sam confirmed, “Good idea.” Sam looked down at the veggie slider in his hand, lowering it. “Hannah I’ve been thinking, about what you suggested the other day. About Cyrus.”  
Hannah perked up a bit, anticipating the answer. “And?”  
“I think we should do it.” Sam answered, “I think we should ask him to stay.”  
Hannah leaned over and hugged her husband for all he was worth.  
The couple talked about how they would approach the issue for a bit, then engaged in small talk for a bit, before Hannah decided she had to say something. She got quiet, looking down at the cheese stick in her hand. “I’ve been thinking about something too.”  
Sam had a feeling he knew. “You’ve decided about Abigail.”  
“I want to talk to her.” Hannah declared, “I need to talk to her. But I don’t think I can do it alone.”  
Sam reached out and took her hand. “Then I’ll be with you. Every step of the way.”  
It was two days after the clean out. Hannah was lying Grace down for the mid-morning nap and Sam was standing in the doorway. “You ready?” Sam asked.  
Hannah turned around. “As much as I’ll ever be.”  
They walked into the stacks where the twins and Cyrus were playing. “Guys, “Sam spoke up, causing them all to look up, “We need to talk to Cyrus a minute okay?”  
“Aw!” The boys complained.  
“It’s okay, he’ll be back. “Sam promised.  
“Be back in a minute, guys.” Cyrus assured them, before nervously going off with the couple, “Is, uh, is there some sort of problem?”  
“No, not a problem.” Sam assured him.  
“We wanted how you would feel about…staying here.” Hannah got out, “With us. As our fourth child.”  
“You’re…you’re offering to adopt me?” Cyrus deduced, not really processing.  
“Yes.” Sam confirmed, “We’ve, uh, gotten attached.” We should have planned this out better.  
Cyrus felt his heart swell a little. But then there was a little nagging tug in the back of his mind. “Won’t I …Won’t I just be a reminder about what happened?” He looked at Hannah. “What happened to you?”  
“You also helped save me.” Hannah pointed out.  
“So?” Sam asked.  
“Yes.” Cyrus answered.  
“Yes?” Hannah repeated.  
“Yes.” Cyrus confirmed, breaking into a smile.  
Overjoyed, Hannah threw herself at her new son and when she was done, Sam went in for a hug as well. “You want to tell the boys with us?”  
“Sure.” Cyrus grinned.  
As they left, Hannah hopped the boys would go gently into middle child status.  
One week, a stack of fake paper work, and several calls with the shady lawyer Rawls hooked them up with later, later, Sam, Hannah and Cyrus signed the final forms on the adoption papers.  
“Does this mean Cyrus is our brother now?” Castiel pipped up from where he and Dean were sitting on the blanket with Grace.  
“Yeah,” Sam confirmed, “Yeah, he’s your brother now.”  
“Yay!” Dean exclaimed, running to Cyrus’ side of the table and hugging his leg.  
Cas, however, had more question. “Do we have papers?”  
“Yes, you do.” Hannah confirmed. They had done up official, or at least official looking adoption papers a while back.  
“Yay!” Dean shouted, “Yay for paper!”  
Suddenly there was an awful smell and Grace began to get fussy.  
Sam flashed a weary, but sincere smile. “I’ll take care of it.”  
Two weeks after that, Sam pulled into a parking lot of the Green Light Tavern in Florida, and looked over to Hannah, who looked like Death himself was standing over her with his Scythe ready to do its thing. “You know, you don’t have to do this.” He told her.  
Hannah shook her head. “I have to. We already came all this way.”  
They had been driving nonstop for two and half day. When Sam was too tired to drive, she drove. The only time they stop was to refuel the car, pick up food, or use the restroom.  
They got out of the car and met in the middle, Sam taking her hand and interlocking it with his as they walked into the bar.  
The room was empty, the only people Tabbris and Oliva, who were sitting in the bar. Seeing the couple, they got up.  
“Thank you, for letting us to this.” Hannah began.  
“It’s the least we could do.” Oliva told them, “She’s up here.”  
Abigail was laid out on bed, staring up at the ceiling, counting the cracks again, when the door opened. She didn’t even bother to look to see who it was, until she heard a voice, he hadn’t heard in about two months now saying, “You sure you don’t want me to stay?”  
No. Hannah thought, but said out loud, “I’ll be fine. I’ll let you know if I need you.”  
“And if you change your mind, I’ll be right out here.” Sam told her, before leaving.  
With Abigail sitting up now the two women just stared at each other. “Let me guess,” Abigail began, sliding up to the foot of the bed, the chain connecting her to the black metal bedframe rattling, “Come to yell at me about how I ruined your life?”  
“I wouldn’t say you’ve ruined it.” Hannah began, suddenly wishing she had had planned what she was going to say when she got here. She had a few ideas, but now they all escaped her. That was when she noticed the shackle around her wrist. “They kept you chained to the bed?”  
Abigail held up her cuffed hand, as if to show it off. “Apparently it’s the only way to keep me from doing something monumentally stupid.” After a beat, she said, “I bet you love that, don’t you?”  
“No.” Hannah replied, actually shaking her head, “That’s too much like what the Stynes did to me. They kept me…they kept me chained to the bed before they took me for surgery.” Feeling thrill of anger fill her again, “And you what? I was terrified the entire time! That’s right, I feel, Abigail! And I was scared for me, for my baby, for Sam, for the boys…do you know that if they had succeeded in killing Sam they would have starved to death! Both of them?! Do you know how horrible a death that is, especially for two young boys who would have no clue what was happening?! How terrifying that would be for them?!”  
“They never told me they were going to kill Sam, I would’ve—I would’ve never—” Abigail began.  
“You honestly believed that shady family who were willing to help you kidnap a baby would leave people who would come to take her back and get revenge alive ?” Hannah snapped, “You’re an idiot. That’s it. You’re an idiot. You let your pain and your hatred blind you to reality and almost got people killed, and almost ruined an innocent child, the very thing you were trying to prevent. Do you have any idea what her life would have been like in their ‘care’ a term I use very loosely? Because I’ve gotten some insights recently and I can tell you it would not be pretty. You were arrogant and spiteful and you know what else?! I forgive you.” Slowly, it was like all the animosity she had been holding in her, all the pain and fear from the abduction, was slowly seeping out of her body and dissolving into nothing. “It doesn’t make what you did okay. What you went through yourself doesn’t make what you did okay. But I’m taking Sam, and, hopefully he’ll go with me, and we are moving on with our boys and your daughter. I hope one day you can too.” Then she turned in walked out, leaving Abigail frozen in a state of shock.

When Hannah walked out of the apartment, Sam was waiting, literally with opened arms that she walked into. He kissed her forehead. “You okay?”  
“Yes, actually.” Hannah answered, “Do, um, do you need a minute with her?”  
“No,” Sam said, “I think I’m ready to let go, too.”  
Two and half days later, two adults—Jody and Charlie—three teens—Cyrus, Alex and Magda—and two toddlers—Dean and Castiel—were simultaneously trying to catch and dodge a flying pacifier.  
“Hit the deck!” Alex warned Cyrus as the pair jumped out of the pacifier’s path, collapsing on the floor. “I think she’s toying with us.” Alex noted, as Grace laughed at the scene.  
“Well, at least that means she’s gotta be getting some control over her powers.” Cyrus speculated hopefully, “Right?”  
It was that scene Sam and Hannah walked in on, Sam reaching out and catching the pacifier.  
“Nice reflexes.” Charlie complimented.  
“Thanks.” Sam grinned, walking down the stairs, “I’ve been getting practice.”  
“Mommy! Daddy!” The twins shouted simultaneously running to their parents as Hannah knelt down with her arms opened wide.  
Before it was his turn, Sam walked over and put the pacifier and Grace’s mouth, picking her up. “We’re gonna have to find a way to help you get a handle on this.” He said, then smiled in spite of himself, “Ah, it’s okay Gracie. You’re worth it.”

**Author's Note:**

> That’s all for now, folks! A little longer than I meant it to be, but I hoped you liked it. If anyone is interested in the next installment, “The British Invasion” should be up next week. Until then, God bless and stay safe out there! :)


End file.
